The National Council on Privatisation, (NCP) has approved the sale of a NITEL/MTEL Property located at No. 3-5, Moloney Street, Tafawa Balewa Square, Onikan, in Lagos, to the state government for N2.5 billion.
The property was one of those listed for sale by the Liquidator of NITEL/MTEL Non-Core assets, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), said in a statement on Friday.
The statement also said that “the property is presently encumbered by the activities of illegal occupants and the Lagos State Government (LASG) has promised a harmless takeover of the property.”
It explained that the Council chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, gave the approval at its second meeting for 2023 last week Tuesday.
Recall that NITEL was incorporated in 1984, but formally commenced operations in 1985, and was jointly owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) with 93.3% share and First Bank of Nigeria Plc (FBN) with 6.7%.
However, MTEL was established in 1996 out of NITEL to provide cellular services. It started a General System for Mobile communication (GSM) in March 2003 after NITEL transferred its GSM licence it acquired when the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) first auctioned Digital Mobile Licences in February 2001.
The NCP, at its meeting of February 27, 2012, approved the privatisation of Nigerian Telecommunications Plc (NITEL), and Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication (MTEL) through “guided liquidation”.
The strategy was adopted by the Council after due consideration of other options and considering the previous failed attempts to privatise NITEL and MTEL through Strategic Core Investor Sale and Negotiated Sale strategies and the huge liabilities to creditors of over N300 billion.
Under the guided liquidation strategy, all the core assets and business undertakings of NITEL and MTEL were to be sold as a single or multiple lots to a qualified bidder by the Liquidator under the general guidance of the NCP.
